“AT&T is now the largest paid-television provider in the country,” Maggie Reardon reports for CNET. “”
“The Dallas telecommunications giant confirmed Friday that it has closed its acquisition of satellite television provider DirecTV for $49 billion,” Reardon reports. “Combining AT&T’s broadband and wireless services with DirecTV’s nationwide satellite TV service will create a powerhouse of broadband, entertainment and communications services.”
“AT&T gets access to DirecTV’s content deals, such as its package of National Football League games, as well as the ability to deliver those services to everyone across the country,” Reardon reports. “The closing of the deal came shortly after the Federal Communications Commission announced Friday that the five-member commission had voted to approve the merger. The Department of Justice also said this week that it would not stop the merger. While both federal agencies had some concerns about the second-largest wireless company buying DirecTV, the concerns were not strong enough to oppose the deal. To mitigate concerns, the FCC imposed several conditions on the merger. Specifically, AT&T agreed to abide by stricter Net neutrality restrictions than is spelled out in rules the agency passed in February…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: $49 billion ain’t chicken feed.
What now?
Even AT&T can get it done. But not Apple. Nope. They just can’t do services. Great phones and computers but don’t even keep up with MSFT. And aren’t even close to GOOG,AMZN,FB etc..
Maybe Apple doesn’t want to get into that business. They are already the richest company in the world, so maybe they know what they are best at.
Norris: WTF? I think you need to study recent business history. The LAST thing any company should do is diversify into fields that are NOT their areas of expertise. I have no idea where the stupid concept of oblique diversification comes from. It is guaranteed to be a disaster. I personally watched Eastman Kodak pull this boner move, over and over and over. They destroyed several companies that way. Thankfully, they sold off Lehn and Fink (Lysol products, obviously zero-fit for Kodak) before they destroyed them as well. Utterly ludicrous.
Really?
No, not really. Just wander and wonder on.
Just what we need, larger companies and fewer players in the game…
Well, not exactly the case. AT&T are adding DirectTV services to their own services. Essentially, DirectTV gets a new manager as well as owner.
I loathe DirectTV. They’ve consistently had a bad, parasitic attitude toward their customers. That’s one reason they’re up for sale. Whether AT&T can repair DirectTV’s bad business culture, I have no idea. AT&T have bad business culture problems of their own. But this is a reasonable fit for AT&Ts business.
Moving toward “Brazil” style Central Services.
Two wrongs don’t make a right…
No, but three lefts do.
So does five rights…
Two thongs make a sight.
It will be interesting what they do with the NFL rights that Directv has. I thought Verizon had an exclusive to show live games on phones. I guess they could stream it to your tablet. As a cable cutter I hope they sell it via AppleTV and similar devices.
As someone who has had Dish Network for nearly ten years, I recommend giving Dish a try if you want to escape AT&T. I love Dish, and I’m afraid I’m not going to be ready to cut the cable anytime soon. Cuz sports.
Boy, that’s going to result in a whole lot more satisfied customers. Combining AT&T and DirecTV customer service will be breathtaking, or make you gag. Same difference.
Now that they’re AT&T, is there a way out of my contract? I really like DirecTV, I just don’t like AT&T.
AGAIN we get this CONDITIONAL approval of a business merge/buyout because so many companies these days are incapable of being RESPONSIBLE members of the capitalist system.
IOW: AT&T isn’t trustworthy. Therefore, the FCC dumped on them requirements, aka demands for responsible behavior, in order for their buyout of DirectTV to take place.
I call this Biznizz Babysitting.
Then there are the adult, responsible companies like Apple.
Great. So instead of improving their service, they’re going to spend $48.5 billion on acquiring DirecTV. AT&T announced almost two years ago the availability of 45Mb/s U-Verse service here in Dallas/Fort Worth. No one I’ve talked to at AT&T knows just where in the hell that service is available. I could switch to Time Warner and get 50Mb/s but then I would have shitty quality TV signal. U-Verse has great TV quality, and very reliable internet service, but U-Verse seems stagnated at no faster than about 30Mb/s even though the fibre that delivers the service is capable of a lot more.
Apple + ATT + DirectTV = Uber Apple TV Apple Music Apple Phone juggernaut. Apple should now buy ATT.
Maybe Apple has some involvement with this, from the smoke filled back room.
Brutal more and more ripe off the costumer …..
ISP – internet. That’s where it’s at for me. Don’t need ary TV mess, my homemade antenna works fine. It’s internet with no choice but Komcast that’s got me over ye olde barrel.